“A dinosaur?” I said indignantly. “Al, my numbers are always near the top. I’m consistently one of your top performers.”

“The world is shifting rapidly, Matt,” he said. “The old ways just don’t cut it anymore. We have to come up with radical changes to the way we do things. We need to leverage the latest, greatest technologies to give us the edge.”

“So you’re firing me?” I said.

“No, Matt,” he said. “I’m retiring you. But don’t worry, my friend. We’re going to throw you one hell of a farewell party and you’ll get some great parting gifts.”

Written for Teresa’s final Three Things Challenge, where the three things are farewell,retirement, and pasture. Teresa is retiring her Three Things Challenge prompt after today. Farewell 3TC! And for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (radical).

As it turned out, Amanda’s parents bought the house with the playhouse in the backyard. It came with a small table and chairs and shelves on the walls, and Amanda moved her dolls and stuffed animals onto the shelves and set up her tea set on the table. She would go to the playhouse every day to play tea party with her dolls, stuffed animals, and her imaginary friend.

Until one day when she came running into the house it tears. “What’s the matter, sweetie?” her mother asked.

“She tore apart my dolls and stuffed toys,” Amanda cried.

“Who did?” her mother asked.

“My friend who lives in the playhouse.”

Amanda’s mother followed Amanda to the playhouse and looked inside, and screamed.

This week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme from Helen Vahdati is “search.” I hope I’m not bending the rules too much by using “searching” as my theme word. Close enough, right?

Anyway, the song I chose is the classic rock song, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” from the band Journey. The song was originally released in 1981 as the second single from Journey’s seventh album Escape. It became a number 9 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 on its original release. It was written by band members Steve Perry, Jonathan Cain, and Neal Schon. Perry sang lead vocals.

The song is essentially about people searching, searching for a better life, for love, whatever. Keyboard player Jonathan Cain got the idea for the song when he went to Hollywood to pursue his career. Cain said, “I was in Hollywood, struggling with my career, kind of lost. I was asking my father, ‘Should I come back to Chicago and just give up on this dream?’ And he said, ‘No, son. Stay the course. We have a vision. It’s gonna happen. Don’t stop believin’.’”

Cain told Steve Perry about his idea for placing the song in Sunset Boulevard, and Perry had him describe it. “I described the menagerie of people who would show up on a Friday night,” Cain said. “All the dreamers that had dreams to become actors, producers, artists, lawyers, anything. They were all there on a Friday night.”

Perry explained that some of the lyrics originated during a series of gigs in Detroit when he found himself in a hotel room unable to sleep, staring out of the window. “I was digging the idea of how the lights were facing down, so that you couldn’t see anything,” he recalled. “All of a sudden I’d see people walking out of the dark, and into the light. And the term ‘streetlight people’ came to me. So Detroit was very much in my consciousness when we started writing.”

Here are the song’s lyrics.

Just a small town girlLivin’ in a lonely worldShe took the midnight train goin’ anywhere

Just a city boyBorn and raised in South DetroitHe took the midnight train goin’ anywhere

A singer in a smokey roomThe smell of wine and cheap perfumeFor a smile they can share the nightIt goes on and on, and on, and on

Strangers waitingUp and down the boulevardTheir shadows searching in the night

Streetlights peopleLivin’ just to find emotionHidin’ somewhere in the night

Workin’ hard to get my fillEverybody wants a thrillPayin’ anything to roll the dice just one more time

Some will win, some will loseSome were born to sing the bluesOh, the movie never endsIt goes on and on, and on, and on

Strangers waitingUp and down the boulevardTheir shadows searching in the night

Streetlights peopleLivin’ just to find emotionHidin’ somewhere in the night